love poem

WHEREIN, THOUGH LOVE'S DEVOTED SERVANT THESE TWENTY YEARS, HIS SOLE WAGE IS TEARS

Felicitous in dreams, to brood content,
To grasp at shadows, chase the summer gust,
Through shoreless fathomless leagues of water thrust,
To build on sand, write on the windy tent
Of air, gaze at the sun till these eyes, spent
And broken by his splendour, drop to dust,
To drive down some soft slope with empty lust
The storm-hooved stag with cattle slow and bent;
Sightless and faint, begging an end to all,

WHEREIN HE EXPLAINS HIS LOVE-STRICKEN STATE, RECALLING THE YEAR, DAY, HOUR OF ITS ORIGIN

Desire presses, Love leads and presides;
Pleasure persuades and ancient habits hold;
Hope cheats and charms with flatteries as old,
And with her bright touch my heart's anguish chides:
It takes her hand, in her my heart confides,
Trusts to its blind and treacherous guide (Ah, cold
And cruel is Love!): the sense grows overbold:
On each wild wish a wilder passion rides!
Virtue and grace, beauty and honour — these

QUITTING VAUCLUSE, HIS SOUL STAYS BEHIND WITH LAURA

Those cherished hills which hold my spirit still
Where the heart lingers, though I tear my feet
Fiercely away, confront my dull retreat,
While I bear Love's dark burden by Love's will.
I marvel often that I can fulfil
The sweet yoke's duties which despair would cheat
In vain, that I can breathe and my pulse beat:
The more I run, the closer looms my ill.
And as the stag, by the dark arrow stricken,
The venomed iron rankling in his flank,

WHEREIN THE REFLECTION THAT POSTERITY WILL ENVY HIS LOVE CONSOLES HIM SOMEWHAT

Sweet anger, sweet disdain and peace as sweet,
Sweet ill, sweet anguish, burden sweet I bear,
Sweet accents sweet to listen to, sweet snare
That sets the soul on fire or curbs its heat.
Be still, my soul! Accept your bitter meat;
And all the acid sweets that fill your fare
Mix with that sweetest bliss, that dear despair,
Softly saluting her, " Thou Paraclete! "
Haply hereafter envious youth shall sigh:
" For sake of that superlative loveliness

WHEREIN LOVE'S AGONY DEVOURS APACE, YET HE CANNOT REPROACH HER

The vulture flames that on my heart's heart feed
Are pitiless; with stony eyes and narrow
They search, and so consume me to the marrow,
So waste my veins, it is a ghost they bleed.
Death, with his barbarous arm poised for the deed,
As heaven thunders or the lions harrow,
Pursues me like a hawk that hunts the sparrow,
While I yield, knowing none will hear or heed.
And yet, were Love and Pity friends, they might
A double rampart for deliverance rear

WHEREIN HE DILATES UPON THE STOLEN GLOVE

O lovely hand, that dost my heart enclose
And my whole life in a small space confine!
O hand, where Heaven and Nature both combine
Their art and ardours in supreme repose!
Sweet fingers, purest pearls of orient rose
To my wounds only cruel and malign!
Does Love permit this mercy that you shine
Unsheathed before me — Love that feels and knows?
O glove, most dear, most white, most delicate,
The perfect sheath for rose-stained ivory,
Where on this earth can mortal consummate

WHEREIN LOVE LINGERS WITH HIM, WATCHING LAURA WALK ABROAD

Here stand we, Love, our glory to regard:
Behold how she surpasses Nature! Stare
The while such sweetness sheds its showers there!
Such drench of dazzling heaven is earth's reward!
Look — purple, pearls and gold in yard on yard
Glitter and richly twist and weave a snare!
How her feet twinkle, her eyes burn the air,
Flashing the dark hills all alive and starred!
The green turf and the thousand-tinted flowers
Under that ancient holm-oak's high pavilion,

WHEREIN LAURA IS GRAVELY ILL

Love, Nature, and that sweet soul's gentleness
Where every pure and lofty virtue dwells,
Are leagued against my peace. Love strains and swells
His malice to destroy me or distress;
The threads which bind the slender nakedness
Of Nature to the earth are weak. Farewells
To the world move that proud heart which rebels
Humbly against the burdens that oppress.
So falters and so fades her spirit's power
Which should inform the flesh like some white flower,

WHEREIN HE EXPATIATES UPON LOVE AND JEALOUSY

Capricious Love now locks the heart in frost,
Now fills the marrow of the heart with fire,
Until we cannot say if hope inspire,
Or fear; if flame has won or ice has lost.
In June I quake and chatter, and am tossed
With flame in mid-December, torn entire
With jealousy, or thrilled with sweet desire,
As if she cloaked some rival to my cost.
But my sick heat consumes me day and night
The more as being all my own; nor thought
Nor poet's tongue can grasp the grim delight

WHEREIN HE URGES UPON A FRIEND THAT MEEKNESS WHICH IS THE ONLY ARMOUR AGAINST LOVE'S GORGON LOOK

When my sweet foe, so often barricaded
In tall contempt, incites me past controlling,
One solace is vouchsafed, one sure consoling,
One strength alone by which my soul is aided:
Wherever her eyes — which would leave my life shaded
In utter darkness — in red anger rolling,
Meet mine, such true humility, such cajoling
Replies, their wrath to meekness is persuaded.
Ah, were it otherwise, less could I dare